Countdown to Zero: movie review

Lucy Walker's documentary, 'Countdown to Zero,' takes a chilling look at various nuclear war scenarios.

ByPeter Rainer, Film criticJuly 30, 2010

Countdown to zero: In the film, the point is made that an object no bigger than a tennis ball can easily wipe out a major city like New York.

Courtesy of Magnolia Films

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Made-up horror movies have nothing on “Countdown to Zero,” a documentary about nuclear security that won’t make you sleep better at night.

Director Lucy Walker uses as her springboard a speech before the UN by President Kennedy where he invoked “a sword of Damocles” hanging over civilization because “accident, miscalculation or madness” could trigger a nuclear event. She then proceeds to lay out all the various and not unlikely scenarios by which that sword could fall.